After the Dark
by cherieluvsbboy
Summary: You must never give up. And when people make you cry and you are afraid of the dark, don't forget the light is always there.” - Idk. ZADR ZimDib Zim/Dib. Goes from Angst to Fluff.


Hey its Cherie again yay. I've been writing this for a while now, there's fluff and no GazLove. Sorry. Actually I'm not, Gaz bugs me. In my world Gaz is a couple years older than Dib, like 19, and Dib is 17. I like flames, keep them coming please. Good ol' reviews are accepted too ahaha. Read on, and always remember to let your imagination run free like your mother.

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After the Dark

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Gaz probably makes my life the hell that it is. I don't know what it is, but I'm pretty sure my father injected evil into her. My father, my father I can handle. He is more like the room mate that pays the rent, so we can't kick him out. Not like we would have anything to kick him out of, considering he doesn't even have a room. Not that we have a lack of space or anything, but he sure as hell doesn't sleep here. I have a theory that he only rents this place out so he can have somewhere to put all his sciencey crap, and so social services won't bug him with court dates and the like. It soil his image if his kids got taken away.

Back to Gaz. Looking at my hospital bills over the last six years, I have had 6 blood transfusions, 7 broken bones, 3 internal injuries, a fractured rib, and I have had 17 teeth knocked out. I should have probably called the police at some point, but god knows what she would have done then. I should have probably moved out (ill be 17 in 2 months), but where would I go? My dad wouldn't give me money to live at a hotel. A minimum wage job wouldn't pay enough to keep the land lord at a safe distance. I have no friends. Actually, the only house that I've ever been to, other than my own of course, is Zim's.

Zim. When I first met him, I was so painfully jealous of all that he was. He was all of my dreams wrapped up into one person. He was an alien, and people actually liked him. He could stand up on his desk and rant about world destruction all day long (and he did) and he would still be accepted by his peers. I never understood what he did to gain that sort of acceptance, now I do. He didn't do anything. He truly didn't care whether he was accepted by the "worm-babies" around him. A few years ago, when I realized this, I stopped fighting him.

Truthfully, now I could care less if he destroys the planet. It IS a horrible place, after all, with horrible people. How could I be expected to care about a place that has rejected and laughed at my attempts to save it? Fuck you Earth, fuck you straight to fucking hell.

Zim, for some unknown reason, recently stopped trying to conquer this hell hole. I'm not sure how to feel about this recent development. I mean on one hand he has mellowed out a ton and has stopped having spaz-attacks every 5 seconds, but on the other, he isn't really ZIM anymore. He always has this kind of empty look in his eyes, like he doesn't have any real reason to do anything anymore.

So that's what brought me where I am now. I limped 3 blocks with a broken leg and a crutch Gaz threw at me as she went to her girlfriend's. So I'm standing here with the bone poking out of my leg, and to top it all off, its fucking raining and I can't open the gate to his house. I jiggled the lock one more time, "Goddamn gate, the one effing day of the fucking YEAR he fucking locks it."

I stopped struggling with the lock long enough to look at my leg. Ouch. I trailed my gaze down from my narrow, shirt clad waist past my belt to the dark brownish stain on my drainpipes. I focused in onto the bulge about mid-calf. That must be the bone, I mused. I kept moving down my leg to my black combat boots, and I followed the pinkish stream of blood coming out of my heel. It mixed with the rain water, and ran in a straight line into a gutter.

"H-IIIIIIIIIIIIII BIGHEAD BOY!!" The little green robot dog thing Zim keeps around screeched at me, knocking me out of my musings and onto the cement sidewalk. I hit the ground hard with a thump, a sickening scrape. A scream ripped out of my throat at the sight of my leg twisted a little more. I kept yelling as I saw the blood stain grow bigger, until it almost consumed my whole leg. "IT'S okay, Bighead Boy!! Ill go get your STICK!!"

The last thing I remember thinking is 'Fuhckk' and the sight of a little green dog running out to get my crutch in the middle of the street. Then the world faded to black.

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My brain slowly drifted to consciousness a while later. I groaned as I twisted my arms above my head and cracked my neck. I slowly opened one eye, waiting for the pupils to adjust to the dim lighting, then the other. I felt a small weight bouncing on my stomach, and leaned up to find Gir-

A flood of memories rushed to the forefront of my mind, and I sat up and Gir tumbled into my lap. I noticed I was wearing plain grey sweats, instead of the wet and bloody skinny jeans of yesterday night. " Well good morning SleepyBig Head Boy! Mastuhs at Skool, and guess what!! HE FIXED YO LEG!! Go MASTUH!!" The little dogrobot ran around in circles yelling 'go mastuh', until he suddenly changed direction and ran into the kitchen.

"I'm makin' peanut butter taquitos!! Want sommme? They're DELICI-OUS..." he sang. I just laughed and refused. I had seen some of the little freak's culinary masterpieces, and the only thing they weren't was delicious. I twisted so my feet were both on the floor, and pulled up the leg of my sweats. A long pink scar wrapped around my calf, but otherwise, my leg was healed. "How the fuck..." I muttered to myself. The worst thing about when Gaz broke a bone was all the time it took to heal, how did Zim fix it in what I assume took at least a couple hours? I pushed the question to the back of my mind, and made a mental note to ask Zim when he got home. For now I decided to just concentrate on the TV.

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At about 2 o'clock, Dib heard someone fumbling with the lock on the door, and Zim walked in. Zim now stood at about 5'9", a couple inches away from Dib's own height. He was lean but muscled, his muscular composition very similar to a human's, and he was much slighter than Dib. That was really saying something, considering Dib was considered to be 'thin' to his peers. Zim's face hadn't changed much, except that his eyes weren't as comically wide, and he had more prominent cheek bones. But he was still the exact shade of green he was when he came here, which was fine with Dib. All in all, he had grown up to be very... uniquely pretty, Dib decided on. He had no problem admitting that he thought the other boy attractive, considering he had known he was gay since the 7th grade. He didn't know if he was actually attracted to the alien yet, but he didn't much care if he was. He doubted Zim would feel the same towards him anyway.

Dib stood to greet the other teen, and to thank him for his leg. "GIR!! You better not burn down the kitchen again with your strawberry pizza toffees, or SO HELP ME IRK I will.." He turned towards Dib and his eyes widened. ' I didn't think the human would still be here, I told Gir to tell him he could leave..', he thought nervously to himself.

" Uh.. Hey Dib-did your leg heal alright? And stuff.."

Dib nodded and beamed. "Yeah its great!! Here it takes doctors weeks to heal that kind of stuff, what did you do to it?"Zim shrugged and gave Dib a small smile.

" I put a solution on it that would speed up the healing process. Truthfully, there was a big chance your leg would just fall off. Uh, Gir was supposed to tell you you could leave whenever you wanted.. So.."

Dib's face blanked, then realization hit. 'I wasn't supposed to stay after my leg healed. Wow this is awkward...' A slight pout formed, he kind've wanted to stay and hang out a little bit. They hadn't had any real contact in 2 years. "Oh alright. Uh I get it if you have things to do, but I thought we could hang out and talk and stuff..."

He flushed at how lame he sounded. " Uh never mind, just... where'd you put my stuff.."

Zim watched his one-time rival with amusement. Dib had grown into a fine human, even taller than the Tallests on Irk. He had let his scythe cut grow out into a soft, silky black mane, which contrasted nicely with his pale skin. Zim acquired a lot of Earth clothing over the years, because his invader suit had ceased to fit him in Grade 8, so it was no problem loaning Dib some clothes.He dressed him in a simple black shirt, which was long but stretched tightly across his pectorals and his lightly muscled stomach. He also put him in some sweats that hung low on his narrow hips, revealing a small line of flawless skin. Zim relished the light pink blush that painted the human's cheeks and trailed down into his neck line when he admitted he'd rather stay here with the alien. Irk, Zim wanted his one-time rival bad. And even if Zim chose not to conquer Earth, he sure would like to at least conquer this human.

"No please do stay. Zim placed your stick, shirt and coat in the lab, but I burned your pants. They were wet with acid and dirty." Zim grimaced at the thought of the water touching his skin, as he preferred not to bathe in paste nowadays.

Dib was shocked at the 'please', but wasn't going to turn down the offer. " O-Okay. That's okay that you got rid of the pants, by the way, I didn't like them much. So whaddaya wanna do?"Zim shifted his weight to the other foot, and thought of the best way to get where he wanted to be. A light went off in the invader's head, and he smiled a devious sharp-toothed smile. Dib gulped. "Let's watch a movie."

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Zim knew what happened when watching these 'movies'. Wonderful things, like touching and kissing. Things that he had never done before, but was more than willing to try. He sent Gir to go fetch him a 'movie', preferably the scary kind, and some popcorn.

About 45 minutes later, Dib found himself waiting in the living room on the couch for Zim to finish making the popcorn. Gir had returned from the movie store with 'The Shining'. Dib was surprised at his movie-picking prowess, until Gir said he was sure it was about shiny things.

'Whatever floats his boat', thought Dib happily. He was excited to spend time with the beautiful green alien, and he also hoped that their semi-relationship would take a romantic turn, but he doubted it. He hated to get his hopes up, only to have them come crashing down. His heart fluttered at the sound of steps coming up behind him.

Zim walked in with the popcorn and plopped down on the couch next to Dib. "Okay, human, put the DeeVeeDee in the slot or whatever you need to do. Zim has no time to figure out your inferior human contraptions", he ordered, and popped a handful of popcorn in his mouth. Mm, salty.

Dib rolled his eyes and got up and bent over to reach the slot. Zim hummed happily at the firm, rounded view. 'That's ZIM's ass, humans. Too bad for you.' He thought of all the humans' other mediocre asses and chortled.

'What's up with all the humming and chuckling', thought Dib suspiciously, but he shrugged it off and sat back on the couch with Zim. The movie started.

The beginning was quite dull, so Zim and Dib started talking about Skool and their interests. The pair found it was easy to open up to each other, despite all the time they spent fighting. It was going well, until Zim started asking about Dib's family life. Dib never really had anyone to tell before, nobody ever actually cared before, so he told Zim everything. About Gaz, the beatings, his father, his non-existent mother. His voice went from flat and toneless to angry, then finally it broke, along with the dam holding his emotions back.

Zim didn't know much about human and Earth family life, but he knew enough to know that that wasn't how it was supposed to be. Touching between loved ones was not usually so violent. Humans were supposed to enjoy… touching, right? He looked at his arms awkwardly, and then to Dib's face. The boy seemed to be trying to focus on the movie, yet his full lower lip warbled a little, and his eyes were shinier than normal. Zim frowned, and on an impulse with one quick motion he pulled Dib into his lap and put his arms around his waist, and lay his head into the crook of the boy's neck. He fit well.

He breathed in the smell of human and dirt and some sort of natural sandalwoody musk emanating from the Dib-Human's very skin. It was intoxicating, and it made his something do a strange flop inside his abdomen. He closed his red orbs and sucked the scent into his lungs, every mouthful like an injection of oxygen straight into his brain. Dib was shocked at this unusual display of affection and.. Pity? No, empathy and something else. Something that made his stomach do a back hand spring inside his abdomen. He adjusted himself in Zim's lap so that he was straddling him somewhat, his legs kneeling comfortably on either side of the alien's torso. He could feel Zim's pleasantly cool breath tickling the side of his neck, and it made goose bumps trail down his spine and shoulders.

Shadows and light from the television flickered across their prone forms. The only sign that showed they simply hadn't died like that was the slow rise and fall of their chests, each breath in time with the other's.

They stayed like that for eternity until Zim slowly lifted his head. He looked up into grey irises flecked with silver. He saw his death in those eyes, and it was lovely.

A hand involuntarily rose from Dib's slim waist to trace the outline of his smooth jaw, going back to trail through raven locks til he felt the indent of a spinal cord. His clawed fingers tightened, leaving small indentations.

Dib gasped, arching up until his chest touched Zim's chin, then relaxed with the digits cradling his central nervous system. He leaned down until his forehead rested against the other boy's, and he let his eyes flicker over amber. He saw the meaning of life in those eyes, and it was unexpected. He leaned back and cocked his head to the side.

" Of course."

His lips crashed against Zim's, and Zim crashed right back. Their faces met in the middle of the space between them and they melted together. Hands searched in seas of ivory and green and lips plundered without any sign of stopping. They would never stop, they would just melt into the next movement like some kind of desperate cycle until they pulled apart for oxygen several hours later.

Clothes fell to the floor along with their owners, their bodies tumbling to the pink carpet in a flurry of passion. They barely noticed, their eyes were rather preoccupied at the moment. Thoughts and sentences disintegrated into words, along with their mouths, hands, legs over shoulders. Gasp penetration thrust moan dib oh irk thrust slowly. The tempo Zim rising thrust intake of air thrust gasp thrust continuing continuing rising thrust intake of air thrust gasp thrust continuing scream of relief, moan of release. Ohh Dib-Love.

Underneath a blanket pulled out from beneath the couch. Their faces flushed light blue and a soft pink and lungs pulling in oxygen with pants. Dib, thoroughly satisfied and sleepy, yawned and pulled Zim closer to him. Zim happily obliged, snuggling his head into Dib's warm neck. They slept in each others' arms, scars long forgotten. Soon day would come, but they didn't need it to. They only needed each other.

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The End

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How'd you like it? Personally i think it ended a little too quickly, and I didn't put much thought into the title, but I was going for a like after the darkest of darks you get the brightest of lights kind of thing. I just made that up, but im pretty sure there's a quote out there like that. Idk.


End file.
